You know something? If someone could take the utilitarian astromech droid R2-D2 of Star Wars fame and empty his innards, he would make for the perfect portable suitcase. The thing is, we do not live in such a science fiction realm, so being down to earth would mean having to settle for items such as the Hop! suitcase. The Hop! suitcase can be said to be a ‘smart’ suitcase, where it follows the owner around. Touted to be the next generation of luggage, this suitcase will come with a trio of receivers which can receive, identify and triangulate the different signals that hail from a user’s mobile phone.
The presence of a microcontroller will then interpret these signals by calculating the phone’s current position relative to the suitcase. Operating a caterpillar system which is based on compressed air, it will then follow the user at a constant distance. Should the signal be lost, you will be alerted of that on your phone via a vibration, and the suitcase would lock itself. It makes me wonder, why not have the suitcase remain locked from the beginning?
You can program the Hop! suitcase to follow one to another or it can be controlled jointly by the staff who handles the baggage at airports or stations. I wonder how much such a suitcase is going to cost, as it is definitely not going to be your regular Samsonite.
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